by James Stooksbury
It was a warm Friday night as the Tennessee Volunteers welcomed the Kentucky Wildcats in a Conference showdown.
Tennessee took the first game of the weekend series by a score of 8-2, led by fantastic pitching and timely hitting.
Tennessee ace Liam Doyle took the mound for the Vols, but received a rude welcome from the Wildcats as Devin Burkes launched a two-run home run over the right field wall.
The Vols would respond in the bottom of the 1st with three runs of their own as Dalton Bargo’s RBI and Reese Chapman’s two RBI single started the scoring early for the Vols.
The game would then turn into a pitching duel for a while as both Liam Doyle and Nate Harris settled into the game and threw three straight scoreless frames.
Liam Doyle would run into trouble in the 5th as he would load the bases after he hit two batters and walked Tyler Bell.
Liam Doyle would respond in a big way, getting Kyuss Gargett to pop up to short, then getting Devin Burkes to strike out swinging.
When asked about this sequence, Doyle would say, “Have confidence with bases loaded, trust your defense, and throw strikes.”
The Vols would then get the offense going again in the 6th as after a Dalton Bargo walk and Manny Marin single, Cannon Peebles would launch a three-run homer into the left field porches.
When asked about the homer after the game, Cannon Peebles explained, “I barreled it, it went pretty high into the sky, so I bet the wind helped it a little bit.”
The focus would then shift back to the mound for the Vols as Liam Doyle would strike out the final two hitters he faced to finish another masterful performance for the Vols lefty.
When asked about his high offspeed usage in the game, Doyle explained, “I’m confident in my offspeed pitches. Obviously I throw a lot of fastballs and sometimes people think I’m one-dimensional, but my offspeed has taken a big leap this year.”
Doyle’s final stat line would be great as he pitched 7 innings of two-run baseball while striking out nine guys in his outing.
When asked about Doyle’s performance, Vitello would say, “As he got deeper into the game, he did have to pitch a little more, and I think we see a little more of that each week.”
The Vols offense wasn’t done yet, as in the 8th inning, Cannon Peebles would launch his second homer of the day off the scoreboard in right field.
“In that last at bat, I swung at a slider in the dirt, and I knew that was his best pitch and when he needed a strike to get ahead, that was his pitch. So I sat that pitch the rest of the at-bat, and when I saw it and hit it hard.” Peebles would explain after the game.
Peebles has been on a tear in SEC play recently, as in his last two games, he has 6 hits and three homers to his name.
Peebles and the rest of the team will look to continue their hot play into game two of the series.
The Tennessee Volunteers (33-5, 12-4 SEC) and Kentucky Wildcats(20-15, 6-10 SEC) will play the next game of the weekend series on Saturday at 6 pm Eastern Time in Lindsey Nelson Stadium.